So, the president was re-elected -- now what?

The end of the presidential election “brings greater certainty to many small business owners in critical areas from health care policy to taxes,” The Wall Street Journalcontends.

Here's how the paper expects things to play out for small companies in key areas:

Health care

President Obama's health care reform is safe, which means “owners with 50 or more full-time-equivalent employees will be required starting in 2014 to provide their work forces with health-insurance benefits or pay a penalty. Also under the law, upper-income households will be taxed an additional 3.8 percentage points on their investment incomes beginning Jan. 1.”

Taxes

The president wants to extend Bush-era tax cuts, due to expire Jan. 1, for couples earning less than $250,000 a year. He would allow them to expire for higher earners and also create a new minimum tax for people making $1 million or more.

“Ending the Bush-era cuts would increase the top tax rate on wages and salaries to 39.6%,” The Journal says. “The top rate on dividends for upper-income households would be higher — 43.4% — when the scheduled 3.8-percentage-point increase in investment-income taxes is included.”

All of this will require congressional approval, which is no sure thing. The paper notes that tax policy is of particular significance to small business owners “because many of them declare their business incomes on their personal tax returns.”

Regulations

The newspaper notes that President Obama “has said that he will keep federal regulations on small businesses to a minimum by doing away with overly burdensome and outdated rules. However, the White House budget office counted 192 economically significant regulations in Mr. Obama's first 3½ years, compared with 146 in the same stretch of President George W. Bush's first term.”

Net neutrality

President Obama has said he supports government oversight of Internet-service providers that control the flow of online content to the Internet.

“Small business owners have raised concerns that without federal oversight, these providers could give faster service to websites owned by big businesses that better align with their interests,” the newspaper reports.
Not a fan

One local small business person is a bit worried about the prospects for a second Obama term.

Mark Tepper, president of Strategic Wealth Partners in Seven Hills, appeared Wednesday on CNBC's “Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo” to discuss the stock market, post-election.

He sees a second term for the president as negative for stocks, with higher taxes leading to an even slower growth environment.

“When you're growing at a snail's pace and growth slows even further, any potential macroeconomic blip can push us into a recession,” according to Mr. Tepper.

Pick up the pace

Cleveland still has a lot of work to do to offer an environment that's conducive for companies to create jobs.

It's not a huge improvement, NetNewsCheck.com reports, but “publishers anticipate overall flat or slightly growing revenue with the largest bump coming from digital businesses.” Digital in-house agency services targeted to small businesses, as well as video, are expected to be among the largest growth areas.

Publishers say strengthening their sales forces' digital efforts is among their main goals for next year.

“We expect flat revenues except for digital,” Mr. Dix said, where he expects to see 15% growth over last year, largely through sales on online display ads and a web marketplace offered by his sites.

He added that painful staff cuts, which have been made previously, “are not in the cards for 2013.”

Since you asked …: Eric Corl, president and co-founder of Columbus-based Fundable LLC, which provides crowdfunding for startups, shares some advice for small businesses with The Washington Post.

The newspaper has a regular feature, “On Small Business,” that answers questions from entrepreneurs.

Asked what the federal government could do to improve access to capital for startups and small businesses, Mr. Corl notes that the recent JOBS Act “will open up trillions of dollars in funding for small businesses by removing the general solicitation ban and allowing the general public to invest in startups. It is a perfect example of legislation that sparks investment and innovation and will make the fundraising process more efficient for entrepreneurs.”

He also encourages legislators “to offer increased tax incentives at the federal level for those who invest in startup companies.”

You can also go here for a response to a question about when it's appropriate to take a small business global.

Part of his answer: “In our experience, it is prudent for entrepreneurs to think of their markets in a global sense at the early growth stage so they can cater to the demands of their foreign customers. Most businesses can utilize cost per click search-engine marketing to begin testing international demand for their products.”